Wisconsin Right Now

“The District is looking into concerns over this poster," Eau Claire North High School's principal told WRN. At least one Eau Claire North High School staffer posted a sign at school reading, “If your parents aren’t accepting of your identity, I’m your mom now. #freemomhugs," sources tell Wisconsin Right Now. Here's the poster: The poster is also visible in a December 2021 Eau Claire North High School Facebook post announcing Jessica France as a new staff member in the skills section. We reached out to France for comment. She did not respond. #Freemomhugs has a website where it advocates for “empowering the world to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community through visibility, education, and conversation. And yes, we still give hugs!” The poster is causing anger among some parents. It comes on the heels of three Eau Claire school board candidates criticizing the Eau Claire Area School District because they say teachers were “required to attend a staff develop...

An Eau Claire teenager refused to stay home and quarantine after a "close contact," so the school district obtained a "court order by the end of the day with four armed police officers ready to remove her from school," the girl's mother says. Now the teenager and school district are engaged in a civil court battle over the matter, she says. On Sept. 30, 2021, the mother, Kita Busse wrote, "I don’t normally talk politics, and what’s happening right now is a polarizing topic. Pixie would never put others at risk, and she has immunity to Covid, but was quarantined for a close contact at school." Busse said the girl "made the decision on her own to attend school anyway. Before she left, she told me, 'I understand now how scared Rosa Parks must have been when she sat in the front of the bus'! When she arrived at her first class, they removed all of the other kids from the room to isolate her. The principal said, 'You might as well just ...